Monday, August 17, 2015

Transfer data between two local PC's using an Ethernet (LAN) cable

Some people recommend buying a USB data transfer cable to transfer data between two computers.
No need.

A LAN cable can transfer data at a much higher rate. Let's assume you want to transfer data from your desktop PC to your laptop.

On your PC
To start, disconnect your PC's LAN cable from the modem's ethernet port and connect it to the laptop's ethernet port.
Now when you open up a command prompt on your PC and type "ipconfig" (without the quotes), you'll see a strange autoconfig IP. Ignore that.

Restart the PC, and you'll get a proper IP assigned.

Note down this IP address. ie: the one you see in the pic: "192.168.1.x". You'll have to enter this IP address into your laptop.

On your laptop

Open up Control Panel > Network and Sharing Center.
Click on "Ethernet"

Click "Properties"

Select "Internet Protocol Version 4"

Specify the IP address you noted down from the PC.

Now create a new folder on the laptop and name it whatever you like. I named it "shared".
Right click on the folder, goto "Properties" and select the "Sharing" tab.
Choose the people to share the folder with, and add "Everyone" to it (just for now).
Give "Everyone" read and write permission.

You'll be shown a message that the folder is shared, and you'll be shown a path through which you can access the folder too (the part that I've shown smudged below, which is "\\computerName\shared".

Now all you have to do is open up Windows Explorer on your PC and in the address bar, type the path you saw on the laptop:

\\ComputerName\shared

...and you'll be able to see the contents of the laptop's folder. Now you can cut/copy/paste files in the shared folder and you'll be able to access it from the PC as well as the laptop.

Enjoy your high speed data transfer. I think I remember having got around 300MB/s on a LAN cable that could support 1GB/s.

When you're finished, go back to the laptop's Internet Protocol Version 4 settings and set it to "Obtain an IP address automatically" after disconnecting the laptop from the PC.

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You can call me a versatile creator. I'm known for quickly adopting new technologies and creating good quality working products with them. Apart from spending most of my life getting people to pronounce my name correctly, I also have a taste for fun, adventure and unprejudiced thought.